Bench Issue: HC lawyers to intensify stir

The lawyers of the Odisha High Court Bar Association on Monday decided to continue their strike till Thursday and take to a more vigorous form of protest.

The general body of the Association decided to meet on Thursday again to take its future course of action, including call for Cuttack Bandh on October 28, secretary of the Association Janmejaya Katakia told reporters here.

He said a team of lawyers would soon visit New Delhi to submit memoranda to the President of India, the Prime Minister and the Union Law minister urging them to ignore the recommendation of chief minister Naveen Patnaik to set up permanent Benches of the High Court in southern and western Odisha.

The High Court lawyers are on strike ever since the chief minister made the recommendation on September 28.

The Bar meeting decided that a writ petition challenging chief minister’s ‘contemptuous’ recommendation would also be filed in the High Court, Katakia said, adding that a delegation of the Association would also meet the Chief Justice of the Odisha High Court and other judges over the issue.